He is the shadow that chilled the spines of every child reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time. Honestly, while Sauron is the big eye in the sky, the Witch King of Angmar is the one doing the actual dirty work on the ground. He's not just a guy in a spooky mask. He is a literal nightmare wrapped in invisible ancient history.
Most people know him from the movies as the leader of the Nazgûl who gets stabbed in the face by Éowyn. But there is so much more to his story than that one fight on the Pelennor Fields. He was a king. He was a sorcerer. He was the architect of a genocide that wiped out entire kingdoms long before Frodo was even a glimmer in a hobbit's eye.
Who was he before the mask?
J.R.R. Tolkien was notoriously cagey about the specific names of the Nazgûl. We know the second-in-command was Khamûl the Easterling, but the Witch King of Angmar remains a bit of a mystery in terms of his original human identity. What we do know is that he was likely a Númenórean lord.
Imagine being at the height of human potential—tall, long-lived, and powerful—and then being offered a ring that promises you immortality. You'd take it, wouldn't you? Most would. These nine men weren't necessarily "evil" to start with; they were ambitious. They wanted to preserve their power forever. Sauron played on that vanity like a master musician.
The rings gave them everything they wanted. For a while. They became great kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old. But then the fading started. Slowly, their physical forms stretched thin. They became "wraiths," existing mostly in the unseen world. By the time the Second Age ended, they were completely enslaved to the One Ring.
The Founding of Angmar: A Masterclass in Terror
After Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance (the battle you see at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring), the Ringwraiths vanished for centuries. They didn't just die. They were "hibernating," waiting for their master’s spirit to return to Middle-earth.
Around the year 1300 of the Third Age, the leader of the Nine reappeared in the north. He didn't just go back to Mordor. He went to a cold, desolate place called Angmar. Why? Because the Northern Kingdom of the Dúnedain, Arnor, was weak. It had split into three bickering factions: Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur.
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The Witch King of Angmar saw an opening. He spent centuries—yes, centuries—dismantling those kingdoms. He used a mix of military might and psychological warfare. He brought down plagues. He corrupted the lords of Rhudaur. He turned the Great Barrow into a place of horror, populating it with the spirits we now know as Barrow-wights.
By the time he was done, the Northern Kingdom of Men was gone. Wiped off the map. Even though the Witch King was eventually driven out by a coalition of Elves and Gondorians at the Battle of Fornost, his mission was already accomplished. He had broken the line of kings in the north, leaving the Rangers (like Aragorn’s ancestors) as wandering nomads.
The Prophecy: "Not by the hand of man"
This is where things get interesting. At the Battle of Fornost, the Elf-lord Glorfindel watched the Witch King flee into the shadows. He stopped the Prince of Gondor from chasing him, uttering the famous words: "Far off yet is his doom, and not by the hand of man shall he fall."
People often think this was a magical protection spell. It wasn't. It was a prophecy—a foresight of what would eventually happen. The Witch King of Angmar took this to heart, though. He grew arrogant. He started to believe he was literally invincible. In his mind, "man" meant "human being," and since he was a terrifying undead sorcerer, he figured he was safe from basically everyone on the battlefield.
That arrogance is exactly what killed him.
The Black Breath and the Morgul-blade
We need to talk about his arsenal. It’s not just the big mace or the sword. The Witch King's greatest weapon was fear.
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Tolkien describes the "Black Breath" as a sort of spiritual poison. If you got too close to a Nazgûl, you'd fall into a deep despair. You’d have nightmares. Eventually, your heart would just stop. It’s a metaphor for depression and hopelessness, literalized as a weapon of war.
Then there’s the Morgul-blade. This wasn't meant to kill you quickly. It was meant to break off a shard in your shoulder and slowly pull you into the wraith-world. If Aragorn hadn't been there at Weathertop with his knowledge of athelas (Kingsfoil), Frodo would have become a "wraithling," a lesser slave to the Witch King of Angmar.
The Siege of Gondor: His Final Act
When the Witch King rode out to the Pelennor Fields, he wasn't just a general. He was a force of nature. He rode a "fell beast"—that leathery, pterodactyl-looking creature—and wore a crown that seemed to stay on his head even though there was no visible face beneath it.
The moment he broke the gates of Minas Tirith is one of the most chilling scenes in literature. Everyone else fled. Only Gandalf the White stood his ground. In the books, the Witch King actually mocks Gandalf. He calls him an "old fool" and tells him his hour has come.
Then the horns of the Rohirrim sounded.
The battle shifted. And eventually, the Witch King found himself facing a young soldier named Dernhelm and a hobbit named Merry. Except Dernhelm wasn't a man. It was Éowyn, the niece of King Théoden.
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When Merry stabbed the Witch King in the leg with an ancient blade from the barrows (the very same barrows the Witch King had corrupted centuries earlier), the spell holding his undead flesh together flickered. That blade was specifically forged by the smiths of Arthedain to kill the Witch King of Angmar. It was the only thing that could have made him vulnerable enough for Éowyn to deliver the final blow.
What most people get wrong about his death
There’s a common misconception that Éowyn killed him just because she’s a woman. While that's the "loophole" in the prophecy, the mechanics are more complex.
Merry’s sword was the MVP. Without that specific Westernesse blade, Éowyn’s sword probably would have just shattered. It was a poetic irony. The very people the Witch King destroyed a thousand years prior were the ones who provided the weapon that ended him.
Lessons from the Lord of the Nazgûl
So, what can we actually take away from the history of this character? Beyond just being a cool fantasy villain, the Witch King of Angmar represents the ultimate end-point of trading your soul for power.
He didn't start as a monster. He started as a leader who wanted more time. More influence. More control. By the end, he had no face, no name, and no will of his own. He was just a tool for a greater evil.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the lore of the Nazgûl or the fall of Arnor, here is how you should approach it:
- Read the Appendices: Most of the Witch King’s best stuff isn't in the main chapters of The Lord of the Rings. It’s in Appendix A, under "The North-kingdom and the Dúnedain."
- Track the Blades: Pay attention to where the hobbits get their swords in The Fellowship of the Ring. Those blades have a direct connection to the Witch King's eventual downfall.
- Study the Battle of Fornost: It provides the essential context for why the Witch King hated the line of Isildur so much and why he was so determined to kill Aragorn.
Understanding the Witch King of Angmar isn't just about knowing he's the "bad guy." It's about seeing the long game Sauron played. It took over a thousand years to destroy the northern kingdom of men, and the Witch King was the patient, terrifying hand that did it. He is a reminder that in Tolkien's world, the past is never truly dead—it's just waiting in the shadows with a rusted crown and a poisoned blade.